Digital coupon offer redemption

ABSTRACT

A coupon clearinghouse server receives a request for a coupon offer from a client device. The server transmits only a first subset of coupon offer data for the coupon offer to the client device, and stores, in memory, a first code for a first merchant at which the coupon offer is redeemable. The code is not revealed to the client device. Subsequently, the server receives, from the client device, a second code that the client device has obtained at a point of sale system. The server determines if there is a match between the first code and the second code, and if so, transmits the second subset of coupon offer data including coupon offer redemption instructions to the client device. The client device presents the now complete coupon offer to the point of sale system to redeem the coupon offer.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS: BENEFIT CLAIM

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.62/083,061, filed Nov. 21, 2014, the entire contents of which is herebyincorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein, under 35 U.S.C.§ 119(e).

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments relate generally to the generation, processing, storage,management, usage, distribution and/or delivery of digital offers,including digital coupons and other digital promotional vehicles.

BACKGROUND

Approaches described in this Background section may include approachesthat could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have beenpreviously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated,it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in thissection qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in thissection.

Targeted marketing techniques assist a variety of entities, such asproduct manufacturers, service providers, and retailers, in efficientlypersuading consumers to purchase certain products and service. Amarketing entity may include, without limitation, product manufacturers,service providers, retailers, third-party marketing firms acting onbehalf of another entity, non-profit organizations, and so forth. Themarketing entity may identify characteristics of people to which theentity wishes to “market” a product or service. For example, an entitythat sells product X may determine that it wants to market to personsthat have purchased a complimentary product Y within a timeframe of Z.Of course, one problem with targeted marketing is that it is sometimesdifficult to ascertain exactly what characteristics to target.

Once targeted characteristics have been identified, the entity may thenattempt to “market” to persons who have those characteristics.Unfortunately, it is also generally difficult to ascertain whether agiven person actually has the targeted characteristics and/or how toactually reach specific persons that have those specificcharacteristics. For example, a particular retailer may have no ideathat a potential consumer recently purchased product Y from anotherstore, and thus be unable to specifically target marketing for Product Xto that potential consumer. Large-scale targeted marketing is thereforetypically difficult to achieve with a high degree of efficiency. Rather,a marketing entity is typically limited to less efficient targetingtechniques, such as targeting specific zip codes or web sites, thusresulting in the marketing entity wasting marketing resources on manypersons who do not have the targeted characteristics.

One common marketing technique involves incentivizing costumer behaviorthrough targeted promotional offers. An “offer” may be construed to be apromise by an offer provider, which may be any entity engaged intargeted marketing, to provide a consumer with a benefit under a certainset of implicit or explicit conditions known as terms. Example benefitsinclude, without limitation, a monetary gift, a discount applied to thepurchase of one or more products or services, free products and/orservices, access to additional offers, and so forth. Example terms mayinclude any one or more of, without limitation, actions that theconsumer must perform, a specific set of item(s) that must be purchasedby the consumer, a specific amount of money that must be spent by theconsumer, a timeframe during which the offer is valid, and so forth. Acustomer benefit of an offer is realized during a process sometimescalled “redemption,” which typically takes place during a transactionbetween the consumer and a retailer. When the consumer wishes to engagein a transaction the retailer determines whether the conditions of theoffer have been met. If so, the retailer, which may be any merchant orother entity that sells products or services, provides the benefit tothe consumer on behalf of the offer provider.

In some embodiments, the retailer is in fact the offer provider. Inother embodiments, the retailer may then seek compensation for providingthe benefit from the offer provider by means of a process known asclearing. During the clearing process, the retailer provides evidence toa third-party clearinghouse, or directly to the offer provider, that theretailer provided the benefit. Assuming the evidence is sufficient, thethird-party clearinghouse, or offer provider, provides compensation tothe retailer. In embodiments involving a third-party clearinghouse, theoffer provider may provide the third-party clearinghouse with funds inadvance. The offer provider also sends to the third-party clearinghousefunds from which the compensation is provided, or reimburses thethird-party clearinghouse for providing the compensation.

A frequent implicit or explicit term of an offer is that the retailermust be presented with a specific coupon during a transaction. Ingeneral, a coupon is a certificate, document, or other physical orelectronic construct that entitles a consumer to accept an offerdescribed or referenced by the coupon, thereby realizing the benefit ofthe offer. A coupon sometimes takes a “hard copy” form, such as a papercertificate, with printed images and/or text describing terms of theoffer. The process of the consumer accepting an offer by presenting,referencing, or otherwise providing a coupon while purchasing,contracting, or otherwise transacting with another party involves“redeeming” the coupon. For example, a consumer may redeem a hard copyof a coupon by handing the copy to a clerk during a purchase at a retailstore. The clerk may then provide the consumer with the subject of theoffer, such as a discounted price, item, service or gift.

One technique for distributing coupons is to include printed couponswith newspapers, magazines, or other items that are distributed toconsumers. One example of an item with which coupons are distributed isa printed receipt. For example, some retailers print receipts at a pointof sale on register paper on which coupons have been pre-printed. Asanother example, some retailers print coupon(s) on a receipt at the timeof the transaction for which the receipt is printed, thereby allowingthe retailers to dynamically select which coupon(s) appear on thereceipt based on the product(s) that were purchased during thetransaction.

Recent distribution techniques now provide consumers with opportunitiesto print their own coupons. For example, a number of websites providesearch engines or catalogs with which consumers may locate offers andthen print coupons for the offers they find. The printed coupons may beused in the same manner as any other coupon.

Other recent distribution techniques involve creating digital coupons.One such technique involves creating unique digital coupons that aresaved to an account associated with the consumer, such as a storeloyalty account. The consumer may redeem such digital coupons duringonline or physical transactions by presenting an account identifier,such as a store loyalty card or an oral identification of the consumer'stelephone number, for the associated account. Since many consumeraccounts are tied to card-based identifiers, such as store loyalty cardsor credit cards, the process of storing a digital coupon identifier toan account may also be referred to as saving a coupon to a card. Someexamples of such techniques are described in U.S. application Ser. No.12/878,231, filed Sep. 9, 2010, the entire contents of which are herebyincorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.

Another digital coupon-based technique involves creating unique digitalcoupons that may be stored on a computing device. The digital couponsmay be transmitted from the computing device to a point-of-sale during atransaction using any of a variety of mechanisms. For example,information about the digital coupon may be uploaded to thepoint-of-sale during an online transaction involving the computingdevice. As another example, information about the digital coupon may betransmitted wirelessly from a smartphone to a receiving componentcoupled to a checkout register during a transaction at abrick-and-mortar store.

Considering the current state of the industry and market for digitaloffers (including digital coupons and other digital promotional discountvehicles), there is a need for improved systems, methods and technologyplatforms for generating, processing, storing, managing and deliveringdigital offers, for enhancing and customizing the digital offerexperience of consumers in general, for increasing the value andbenefits derived by consumers from digital offers, for improving theability of offer providers, offer distributors and retailers tocustomize digital offer selection, delivery, utilization, management,monetization and redemption analysis, and for otherwise increasing theefficiency and financial return of the digital offer industry andmarket.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a drawing of a networked environment according to variousembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a process flow illustrating an embodiment of a method ofproviding offers at a consumer-operated device and redeeming offers at apoint of sale system;

FIG. 3 is a process flow illustrating an embodiment of a method ofproviding offers at a consumer-operated device and redeeming offers at apoint of sale system;

FIG. 4 is a process flow illustrating an embodiment of a method ofproviding offers at a consumer-operated device and redeeming offers at apoint of sale system;

FIG. 5 is a process flow illustrating an embodiment of a method ofproviding offers at a consumer-operated device;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a coupon clearinghouse system according tovarious embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a database structure for storing useraccount data in accordance with certain embodiments of the presentinvention.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerousdetails are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding ofvarious embodiments of the present invention. It will be apparent,however, that various embodiments of the present invention may bepracticed without these specific details. In other instances, well-knownstructures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoidunnecessarily obscuring the present invention.

1.0. General Overview

The following describes systems and methods for addressing needs such asdescribed above, among other needs, by integrating and processingtransaction data from a plurality of retailers in connection withdigital offers, including digital coupons and other digital promotionaldiscount vehicles, in accordance with various embodiments.

In other aspects, the invention encompasses data processing systemscomprising logic modules implemented at least partially by one or moreprocessors, as well as memories and other computer-readable mediaconfigured to carry out the foregoing steps.

2.0. Structural Overview

FIG. 1 illustrates a networked environment 100 according to variousembodiments in which a digital offer (e.g., coupon) system can beimplemented. The networked environment 100 includes at least oneclearinghouse system 103 in communication with an offer issuer system105, one or more client devices 106, at least one third party retailersystem 113 and/or at least one point of sale system 115. The variouscomponents shown in the networked environment 100 of FIG. 1 can be incommunication via one or more networks 117, which can include, forexample, the Internet, intranets, extranets, wide area networks (WANs),local area networks (LANs), wired networks, wireless networks, or othersuitable networks, etc., or any combination of two or more suchnetworks.

Clearinghouse system 103 may comprise, for example, a server computer orany other system providing computing capability. Alternatively,clearinghouse system 103 may a plurality of computing devices arranged,for example, in one or more server banks or computer banks or otherarrangements. For example, a plurality of computing devices together maycomprise a cloud computing resource, a grid computing resource, and/orany other distributed computing arrangement. Such computing devices maybe located in a single installation or may be distributed among manydifferent geographical locations. For purposes of convenience, theclearinghouse system 103 is referred to herein as comprising a singlecomputing device. It is understood that a plurality of computing devices103 may be employed in the various arrangements as described above.

The offer issuer system 105 can also represent one or more computingdevices with which an offer issuer can communicate with theclearinghouse system 103. Likewise, the third party retailer system 113and/or point of sale system 115 can represent one or more computingdevices in communication with the clearinghouse system 103 implementingthe digital offer functionality described herein. The third partyretailer system 113 can implement a third party retailer site thatimplements an electronic commerce system where users can purchaseproducts and/or redeem offers, such as digital coupons. Similarly, thepoint of sale system 115 can represent one or more point of salecomputing devices that are operated by a retailer, where users canpurchase products and/or redeem offers, such as digital coupons. Theremainder of the present disclosure discusses redemption of digitalcoupons for the sake of convenience.

The clearinghouse system 103 is configured to execute one or moreapplications including an offer clearinghouse application 121. The offerclearinghouse application 121 is executed to facilitate distribution andredemption of offers, such as digital coupons as will be describedherein. In some embodiments, offer clearinghouse application 121 canreceive a coupon specification from an offer issuer system 105 thatdefines the various properties and/or restrictions associated with adigital coupon funded by the offer issuer system 105. In turn, the offerclearinghouse application 121 can make these digital coupons availableto users of the offer clearinghouse application 121. Users may clipthese coupons or otherwise associate the digital coupons with a useraccount, such as a user account associated with offer issuer system 105and/or third party retailer system 113. Users can then redeem thesedigital coupons with a third party retailer system 113, a point of salesystem 115, and/or other retailer outlets, where the offer clearinghouseapplication 121 may facilitate authentication of the user, completion ofthe digital coupon, validation of the digital coupon, and encumbrance ofthe digital coupon. In this context, encumbrance of a digital coupon canrefer to expiring the digital coupon or decrementing a number of usesavailable for the digital coupon. The offer clearinghouse application121 can also receive purchase confirmations and/or settlement requestsfrom third party retailer systems 113, point of sale systems 115, orother retail outlets in connection with purchases made by users forwhich a digital coupon issued by the offer clearinghouse application 121to the user were used.

Accordingly, the offer clearinghouse application 121 can issuereimbursements to third party retailer systems 113, point of salesystems 115, or other retail outlets and/or their operators fordiscounts or other promotions designated by the digital coupon. Theoffer clearinghouse application 121 can also generate reporting metricsfor a coupon issuer that includes various statistics and informationregarding digital coupon redemption, the users that clip digitalcoupons, user purchasing history, user browsing history, etc.Additionally, the offer clearinghouse application 121 can generate aninvoice for a coupon issuer in connection with reimbursements paid tothird party retailer sites and/or point of sale systems. Additionaldetails and variations of the operation of the offer clearinghouseapplication 121 will be described herein.

At least one client 106 facilitates communication by a user with theoffer clearinghouse application 121 as will be described. As illustratedin FIG. 1, a client device 106 a may comprise various types of computersystems such as, for example, a desktop, laptop, or other computersystem with like capability. Another client device 106 b may comprise apersonal digital assistant, cell phone, or other portable device withlike capability as can be appreciated. The client 106 may interface withthe clearinghouse system 103 using various applications such as abrowser application 143, dedicated mobile applications 145, or otherapplications as can be appreciated. In one embodiment, various userinterfaces can be generated on a display device of the client 106 tofacilitate interaction with the various systems or componentsimplemented on the clearinghouse system 103. In this way, users mayinteract with the offer clearinghouse application 121 in order to viewand/or clip digital coupons available in a digital coupon systemimplemented by the offer clearinghouse application 121.

Client 106 may be any of a variety of devices, including a personalcomputer, printer, phone, or portable computing device. In anembodiment, client 106 comprises one or more application components thatprovide a consumer with an interface to shopper interface 153. Client106 may be, for example, a standalone software application, a webbrowser, or a plug-in to a web browser. Client 106 need not necessarilybe executed by a device that is owned or even exclusively operated byconsumer. For example, client 106 may be executed by an in-store kioskprovided to consumers by retailer 113.

In an embodiment, client 106 is a special-purpose computer configuredwith logic that can perform the operations described herein duringoperation. In an embodiment, client 106 is a general-purpose computerthat comprises one or more processors, and memory, mass storage device,or other non-transitory computer-readable storage media storinginstructions which, when loaded and executed, cause the one or moreprocessors to perform the operations that are further described herein.

Client 106 communicates with offer clearinghouse application 121 overnetwork 117 to receive offer data. The offer data sent to client 106 mayinclude, for instance, a listing of information about offers availableto consumer, including offer terms and values, as well as datadescribing a specific offer in sufficient detail to allow client 106 todisplay or render a coupon for the offer. Client 106 may, using variousinput or output mechanisms, allow consumer to view a list of availableoffers, select a particular offer from that list, and choose whether toclip the coupon for immediate redemption, or to save the offer to aconsumer account. In response to consumer selecting the latter option,client 106 may send a request to application 121 to save the selectedoffer to consumer's account.

In an embodiment, client 106 is a wireless, portable, and/or batterypowered computing device that the consumer commonly keeps with him orher while traveling, such as a phone, tablet, personal digitalassistant, watch, and so forth. Client 106 is configured to executeinstructions for a graphical coupon client interface by which theconsumer communicates with offer server 510. The coupon client interfacemay be provided by, for instance, a mobile application 145 or a webapplication 143.

The offer issuer system 105 and third party retailer system 113 can alsocommunicate with the offer clearinghouse application 121 via userinterfaces rendered in a browser executed in corresponding computingdevices. Additionally, they may communicate with the offer clearinghouseapplication 121 via application programming interfaces (APIs) providedby the offer clearinghouse application 121. As one example, the offerclearinghouse application 121 can provide a web service API with whichthird party retailer systems 113 can communicate in order to facilitateredemption of a digital coupon by a user in association with a purchaseof products in a shopping cart and subsequent reimbursement of apromotion provided to the user in connection with the sale.

In some embodiments, e.g., as discussed further with reference to FIGS.2 and 3, the point of sale system 115 can also communicate with theoffer clearinghouse application 121, e.g., via user interfaces renderedin a browser executed in corresponding computing devices, viaapplication programming interfaces (APIs) provided by the offerclearinghouse application 121, and so on. As one example, the offerclearinghouse application 121 can provide a web service API with whichpoint of sale system 115 can communicate in order to facilitateredemption of a digital coupon by a user in association with a purchaseof products in a shopping cart and subsequent reimbursement of apromotion provided to the user in connection with the sale.

In other embodiments, e.g., as discussed further with reference to FIG.4, the point of sale system 115 cannot communicate with the offerclearinghouse application 121. The point of sale system 115 can be adumb system that is incapable of e.g., connecting with network 117 ormay have temporarily (e.g., as a result of power interruption, serviceinterruption, etc.) lost communication with the offer clearinghouseapplication 121. To illustrate the point that in these embodiments,e.g., as discussed further with reference to FIG. 4, the point of salesystem 115 cannot communicate with the offer clearinghouse application121, an arrow between network 117 and point of sale system 115 in FIG. 1is drawn as being dotted.

Accordingly, in order to manage the various interactions with thevarious entities in a digital coupon system, the offer clearinghouseapplication 121 can provide various interfaces that facilitatecommunication with offer issuer systems 105, users on a client 106,third party retailer system 113, and/or point of sale systems 115. Tothis end, the offer clearinghouse application 121 can execute a couponissuer interface 151, a shopper interface 153, a third party retailersite interface 155, and a point of sale interface 157.

It should be appreciated that the depicted illustration of the offerclearinghouse application 121 and the description of various interfacesis non-limiting, and is presented for ease of describing the variousinteractions with various entities and/or actors in connection with adigital coupon system implemented by the offer clearinghouse application121. The offer clearinghouse application 121 can provide one or morecoupon user interfaces with which a user may interact on a client 106 inorder to clip coupons rendered in the user interface. The offerclearinghouse application 121 can display coupons according to variouscategories and generate coupon recommendations based on a user profile,which can also be displayed in a coupon user interface on a client 106.

A coupon issuer interface 151 is executed by the offer clearinghouseapplication 121 to interact with an offer issuer system 105. An offerissuer system 105 can initiate digital coupon campaigns via a digitalcoupon system implemented by the offer clearinghouse application 121.The offer issuer system 105 can transmit a coupon specification thatdefines at least one digital coupon via a user interface generated bythe coupon issuer interface 151 and rendered on the offer issuer system105. Alternatively, the offer issuer system 105 can transmit a data fileto the coupon issuer interface 151 that contains a coupon specificationdefining at least one digital coupon. The coupon issuer interface 151can parse the data file to determine the parameters of one or moredigital coupons defined in the coupon specification received from theoffer issuer system 105. In another embodiment, the coupon issuerinterface 151 can provide a network page interface and/or an applicationprogramming interface (API) accessible over a network with which acoupon issuer can interact in order to define a coupon specification.

A coupon specification received by the coupon issuer interface 151 froma coupon issuer can define various parameters and/or restrictionsregarding one or more digital coupons. A coupon specification can defineone or more products to which a digital coupon applies. Products can bedefined by the coupon identifier by identifying one or more productidentifiers. A product identifier can include a universal product code,a model number, a serial number, a stock keeping unit, or any otheridentifier that can uniquely identify a product or a class of products.The coupon specification can specify that a digital coupon defined bythe coupon specification is applicable to a bundle of products bydefining multiple products in a coupon specification and designatingthat multiple products identified in the specification are required tobe purchased by a user in order for the digital coupon to becomeapplicable. The coupon specification can also include a coupon issueridentifier or tracking number, which can be used by a coupon issuer totrack metrics such as redemption rate, clip rate, and other metrics. Tothis end, the coupon issuer interface 151 can provide such an identifieror tracking number in connection with coupon metric reports and/orinvoices transmitted from the offer clearinghouse application 121 to theoffer issuer system 105.

The coupon specification received by the coupon issuer interface 151 canalso define a coupon face value or a promotion applicable to one or moreproducts or class of products identified by the coupon specification.The promotion can include an amount by which products identified by theone or more product identifiers can be discounted (e.g., a dollaramount, a percentage of a sales price, a percentage of a manufacturer'ssuggested retail price, etc.). Additionally, the promotion can defineone or more complimentary or discounted products that can be provided toa consumer in connection with redemption of a digital coupon. In otherwords, the promotion can define an amount that the coupon issuer iswilling to reimburse a third party retailer in connection withredemption of a digital coupon defined by the coupon specification. Thecoupon specification can also define an amount which the coupon issueris willing compensate an operator of the offer clearinghouse application121 for each user that views and/or clips a digital coupon.

The coupon specification can additionally specify a campaign budgetand/or an expiration date associated with one or more digital couponsdefined by the coupon specification. A campaign budget can specify atotal amount the coupon issuer is willing to reimburse retailers inconnection with redemption of a digital coupon. The coupon specificationcan also specify one or more retailers with which the digital coupon canbe used. In this way, the coupon issuer can restrict redemption of adigital coupon to a select number of third party retailer systems 113,point of sale systems 115, or other retail outlets.

The coupon specification transmitted from an offer issuer system 105 tothe coupon clearinghouse 121 through the coupon issuer interface 151 canalso define targeting criteria for the digital coupon. Targetingcriteria can specify parameters regarding users of the offerclearinghouse application 121 that are eligible to view and/or clip adigital coupon specified by the coupon specification. The targetingcriteria, in one example, can specify that a particular digital couponcan only be viewed by a user who has purchased and/or viewed aparticular product or class of products. In another example, thetargeting criteria can specify that a digital coupon is only availableto be clipped by users matching certain demographic information, suchas, but not limited to, age, sex, income level, location, etc. In thisway, a coupon issuer associated with a digital coupon can preciselytarget certain users, as the offer clearinghouse application 121maintains various information about a user in a user account that can beused to target digital coupons.

A shopper interface 153 executed by the offer clearinghouse application121 can facilitate interactions with a user associated with a useraccount accessible to the offer clearinghouse application 121. Theshopper interface 153 can generate a coupon user interface with which auser can view and/or request digital coupons initiated by digital couponcampaigns from coupon issuers and that are available via the offerclearinghouse application 121. Alternatively, the shopper interface 153can transmit data to an application, such as the mobile application 145,that is tailored to allow a user to view and/or clip digital coupons. Insome embodiments, a client device 106 a/106 b may execute client-sidecode to render a user interface based at least upon data regardingdigital coupons provided by the shopper interface 153.

Accordingly, shopper interface 153 can authenticate credentials of auser associated with a user account. In some embodiments, the shopperinterface 153 can establish a session associated with the user accountand the client device 106 on which a user is interacting with theshopper interface 153. The shopper interface 153 can transmit a sessionidentifier, such as a browser cookie, that can be stored in a browserapplication 143 and/or mobile application 145 that establishes a useridentifier associated with the user account. In this way, a user canbrowse a third party retailer site 113, which can have access to such asession identifier and/or a user identifier stored therein to establishan identity of the user within a digital coupon system implemented bythe offer clearinghouse application 121 and request information from theoffer clearinghouse application 121 regarding digital coupons associatedwith the user. In some embodiments, the shopper interface 153 can alsoobfuscate and/or encrypt identifying information within such a sessionidentifier to protect the privacy of a user.

The shopper interface 153 can provide coupon and/or productrecommendations based at least upon user profile data associated with auser account. The offer clearinghouse application 121 can maintain userdata 131 that can include coupon clipping/request history data,demographic information, purchase history, and other marketing dataregarding a user. User data 131 is discussed further with reference toFIG. 7. Accordingly, the shopper interface 153 can identify productsand/or digital coupons to recommend based upon the various profile dataaccessible to the offer clearinghouse application 121.

The shopper interface 153 can also transmit digital coupons associatedwith a user account to a mobile device associated with a user. In thisway, a user can clip digital coupons available via the offerclearinghouse application 121 and load these digital coupons on a mobiledevice for redemption with a third party retailer system 113, a point ofsale system 115 or other retail outlets. In one embodiment, the shopperinterface 153 can transmit a representation of the digital coupon to amobile application 145 executed on a client device 106 b, which canrender a bar code on a display device 141 that identifies a digitalcoupon. A bar code scanner in communication with a point of sale system115 can scan such a bar code for redemption of the coupon by the user inconnection with a purchase of products identified by a couponspecification defining the digital coupon. In the embodiment discussedin FIG. 2, the point of sale system 115 can communicate with the offerclearinghouse application 121 to validate and subsequently encumber thedigital coupon upon redemption. Interactions between a point of salesystem 115 and the offer clearinghouse application 121 will be discussedin greater detail with reference to the discussion of the point of sale(POS) interface 157.

The third party retailer site interface 155 can be executed tofacilitate interactions with a third party retailer system 113. Thethird party retailer site interface 155 can provide an applicationprogramming interface (API) or other appropriate interface with which athird party retailer system 113 can interact to identify users and theirassociated digital coupons as well as provide data regarding digitalcoupon redemption and reimbursement requests. In one embodiment, thethird party retailer site interface 155 can provide web service API sothat a third party retailer system 113 can transmit and/or receive textbased data or other data regarding the various interactions between thedigital coupon system and third party retailer system 113.

An account accessible to the offer clearinghouse application 121associated with a third party retailer system 113 can be authenticatedby the third party retailer site interface 155. In some embodiments, athird party retailer system 113 can access a session identifier (e.g., abrowser cookie) established by the shopper interface 153 when a userauthenticates a user account via the shopper interface 153. When a userattempts to purchase one or more products via a virtual shopping cart inthe third party retailer system 113, the third party retailer system 113can transmit a user identifier associated with the session identifier tothe third party retailer site interface 155, which can validate the useridentity and provide one or more digital coupons associated with theuser account to the third party retailer system 113. Additionally, thethird party retailer system 113 can transmit one or more productidentifiers associated with a virtual shopping cart of the user as wellas quantities of the products in the cart. Accordingly, the third partyretailer site interface 155 can transmit product identifiers and apromotion associated with the product identifiers so that the thirdparty retailer system 113 can apply a promotion associated with one ormore applicable digital coupons to eligible products associated with avirtual shopping cart of the user.

In some embodiments, the third party retailer system 113 can encrypt auser identifier and/or session identifier transmitted to the third partyretailer site interface 155, which can decrypt the identifier in orderto authenticate a user and provide information regarding digitalcoupons. In some embodiments, the third party retailer system 113 canprovide additional data regarding a user in addition to the useridentifier so that a user identity can be verified. As one example, thethird party retailer system 113 can provide an e-mail address, name,shipping address, phone number, or other identifying data so that if,for example, a browser cookie associated with a session of the user isestablished on a public computer, digital coupons may not be encumberedby other users. In this scenario, the third party retailer system 113can encrypt this additional identifying information, which can bedecrypted by the third party retailer site interface 155.

In another example, the third party retailer system 113 can hash thisadditional identifying information and provide a hashed value and/orhash signature to the third party retailer site interface 155. The thirdparty retailer site interface 155 can then determine whether the hashedvalue and/or hash signature corresponding to identifying information ofthe user matches a hashed value and/or hash signature corresponding toinformation stored about the user in data store 124 accessible to theoffer clearinghouse application 121.

Upon receiving information regarding applicable digital coupons from thethird party retailer site interface 155, the third party retailer system113 can generate a purchase confirmation that can be received by thethird party retailer site interface 155. The purchase confirmation canspecify the digital coupons that were applied and/or a promotionprovided to the user in connection with the purchase. Upon receiving apurchase confirmation associated with a particular user as well as oneor more digital coupons applied to a purchase, the offer clearinghouseapplication 121 can encumber the digital coupons associated with theaccount of the user. The purchase confirmation can also provide ashipment confirmation and/or shipment tracking data associated with thepurchase, so that the third party retailer site interface 155 canvalidate shipment of the products. In one example, reimbursement of athird party retailer site can be initiated when the third party retailersite interface 155 receives a purchase confirmation from the third partyretailer system 113. In other embodiments, the third party retailersystem 113 can transmit a settlement request or reimbursement request inconnection with a purchase confirmation to the third party retailer siteinterface 155, which outlines an amount by which the third partyretailer 113 is to be reimbursed in connection with redemption of adigital coupon by a user. Accordingly, the third party retailer siteinterface 155 can initiate electronic payment to a third party retailersite operating a third party retailer system 113 and transmit acorresponding electronic confirmation. Purchase confirmations and/orreimbursement requests can be exchanged between a third party retailersystem 113 and the third party retailer site interface 155 on a purchaseby purchase basis or on a batch basis, whereby the third party retailersystem 113 transmits a plurality of confirmations and/or an aggregatereimbursement requests associated with a plurality of purchases wheredigital coupons were applied.

Additionally, if a transaction that is processed by the offerclearinghouse application 121 is cancelled after it is processed, theoffer clearinghouse application 121 can receive an order cancellationnotice from a third party retailer system 113 and/or a point of salesystem 115. Accordingly, the offer clearinghouse application 121 canunencumber a digital coupon associated with a user so that it may beused again. Additionally, the offer clearinghouse application 121 canfacilitate reimbursement from a third party retailer of a coupon amountinitially paid to a third party retailer in connection with thetransaction.

The third party retailer site interface 155 can also enforce minimumadvertised pricing rules specified by a coupon issuer in a couponspecification. Accordingly, the third party retailer site interface 155can receive an advertised selling price associated with a product in athird party retailer system 113. If the selling price violates a minimumadvertised pricing rule specified by the coupon specification associatedwith a digital coupon, the third party retailer site interface 155 cantransmit a message to the third party retailer system 113 that deniesredemption of the digital coupon.

The third party retailer site interface 155 can also receive aninventory audit report associated with products for which the thirdparty retailer system 113 redeemed coupons on behalf of users. In thisway, the third party retailer site interface 155 can perform a form offraud detection. In some embodiments, an inventory audit report caninclude proof that a third party retailer site has paid for inventorycovering reimbursement requests submitted by one or more third partyretailer systems 113 associated with a third party retailer site to thethird party retailer site interface 155 over a period of time.

In other embodiments, the third party retailer site interface 155 cantransmit data regarding digital coupons associated with a user accountthat are in turn associated with products that may not be in a virtualshopping cart on the third party retailer system 113. In this way, thethird party retailer system 113 can provide additional productrecommendations for products available via the third party retailersystem 113 that are relevant to digital coupons associated with a useraccount, even though these products may not be in a virtual shoppingcart of the user. Additionally, the third party retailer site interface155 can transmit information regarding digital coupons available via adigital coupon system implemented by the offer clearinghouse application121 that are not presently associated with a user account, and thatcorrespond to products available via the third party retailer system 113so that the third party retailer system 113 can recommend these productsand/or digital coupons.

In the embodiment discussed in FIG. 2, point of sale system interface157 can be executed by the offer clearinghouse application 121 tofacilitate redemption of digital coupons in a point of sale system 115in communication with a digital coupon system implemented by the offerclearinghouse application 121. As noted above, in one embodiment,digital coupons associated with a user account can be transmitted to amobile application 145, which can display a bar code or provide anotheridentifier associated with the digital coupon. A representation of thedigital coupon can be generated by the shopper interface 153 such thatit uniquely identifies the digital coupon and/or the user account withwhich the digital coupon is associated. A point of sale system 115 canreceive a bar code or other identifier associated with the digitalcoupon. In the embodiment discussed in FIG. 2, point of sale system 115transmits the identifier to the point of sale system interface 157 tovalidate whether the digital coupon should be redeemed or honored by thepoint of sale system.

The point of sale interface 157 can validate the digital couponpresented by a user via a mobile device by receiving an identifier thatidentifies the digital coupon as well as products associated with apurchase in the point of sale system 115. The point of sale interface157 can then determine whether a promotion associated with the digitalcoupon should be provided to the user in connection with the purchase bydetermining whether the products associated with the purchase qualifyfor the promotion, whether the digital coupon remains valid due to acampaign budget and/or an expiration date specified by a couponspecification, and/or whether the digital coupon remains valid due toits being used in excess of a number of uses specified by the couponspecification. Upon validating a digital coupon received from the pointof sale system 115 in this way, the point of sale interface 157 canencumber the digital coupon associated with the user account asdescribed above.

The clearinghouse system 103 can include (or otherwise access) at leastone data store 124, which may comprise data and applications operable toprovide access to the data stored therein. Data store 124 may compriseone or more databases and/or file repositories. It should be appreciatedthat the data store 124 may or may not reside within a computing device103, but may be accessible via a network to the clearinghouse system103.

The data store 124 may be used to store user data 131 associated withuser accounts of users of the offer clearinghouse application 121. Userdata 731 can include, for example, user profile data, which can includedemographic information about a user, user authentication information,user login information, shipping addresses, telephone numbers, paymentinformation, e-mail addresses, purchasing history, product browsinghistory, a digital coupon usage history (including coupons issued to theuser), a digital coupon clipping history, affinity groups with which theuser is affiliated, and other data related to users. The user data 131can also include data regarding digital coupons the user has clipped andare presently associated with a user account. In some embodiments, userdata 131 can also include a unique key pair issued to the user, asdiscussed further with reference to FIG. 5. 5).

The data store 124 can also include issuer data 133, which includes dataregarding coupon issuers 105. The issuer data 133 can include variousdata regarding a coupon issuer account accessible to the offerclearinghouse application 121. For example, the issuer data 133 caninclude profile data regarding a coupon issuer, such as, but not limitedto, data regarding payments for coupon campaigns, products available viaan electronic commerce system that are associated with the couponissuer, digital coupons issued by and associated with the coupon issuer,and other data as can be appreciated.

The data store 124 can also include offer data 135, which includes dataregarding specific digital coupons that are specified by a couponissuer. Among other aspects, coupon data may comprise, for each offer,data such as the name of the offer provider making the offer,distribution parameters, terms of the offer, print layout informationand graphics, one or more internal or provider identification numbers,bar code generation information, one or more relevant uniform resourcelocators (URLs), one or more offer names or titles, one or more relatedsearch terms, clearinghouse information, and one or more relatedcategories. Distribution parameters may include aggregate distributionlimit values, per device distribution limit values, per regiondistribution limit values, and/or per client distribution limit values.

As noted above, a coupon issuer can, via an offer issuer system 105,create a digital coupon campaign that is facilitated by the offerclearinghouse application 121 by transmitting a coupon specification tothe offer clearinghouse application 121. A coupon specification caninclude various information regarding one or more digital coupons suchas a product identifier associated with the digital coupon as well astargeting criteria, and can be stored in offer data 135. Targetingcriteria associated with a digital coupon can define requirements forusers to which a digital coupon should be made available by the offerclearinghouse application 121. A coupon specification can also specify apromotion associated with a digital coupon, which can include a discountamount the coupon issuer is willing to reimburse to a third partyretailer, a complimentary or discounted product provided is associationwith a particular product, and other coupon promotions as can beappreciated. A discount amount can include a fixed amount and/or apercentage of a selling price. The coupon specification can also specifya digital coupon expiration date and/or campaign budget, which describesa maximum amount a coupon issuer is willing to reimburse third partyretailer sites and/or point of sale system operators in connection witha digital coupon campaign.

The coupon specification can further include retailer restrictions,which can limit those third party retailers with which a digital couponis eligible to be redeemed. In this way, in one embodiment, a couponissuer communicating with the offer clearinghouse application 121 via anoffer issuer system 105 can limit a digital coupon campaign toauthorized dealers of a product sold by the coupon issuer. In anotherembodiment, the coupon issuer can limit a digital coupon campaign toretailers that served a desired demographic. Other variations should beappreciated and will be discussed in more detail herein.

The data store 124 can also include retailer data 137, which includesdata regarding third party retailer systems 113, point of sale systems115, and/or other retail outlets and their operators. Retailer data 137can include information regarding redemptions of digital coupons issuedby the offer clearinghouse application 121 by users with variousretailers. The offer clearinghouse application 121 can facilitateredemption of digital coupons with third party retailers who may operatethird party retailer systems 113, point of sale systems 115 or othersystems and store data regarding the redemption in retailer data 137.Retailer data 137 can include a volume of redeemed coupons, an accountbalance associated with a retailer, data regarding a fraud history, dataregarding products available via a particular retailer, and other dataas can be appreciated. Additionally, retailer data 137 can includeidentifiers that specify an identity of various point of sale systems115 that may be associated with a retailer. As can be appreciated, aretailer may operate numerous point of sale systems 115 that caninteract with the offer clearinghouse application 121. An identifier canbe stored in retailer data 137 in order to identify a third partyretailer associated with a point of sale system 115 and recordinformation about coupon redemptions at the point of sale system 115 aswell as enforce digital coupon restrictions.

The data store 124 can also include other data related to users, couponissuers, retailers and digital coupons as can be appreciated, but arenot necessary to discuss herein for an understanding of the variousembodiments of the disclosure. Additionally, it should be appreciatedthat the data store 124 can be implemented in a separate computingdevice that may be located in a separate installation or location. Thedepicted table structure of the data store 124 is one example of howdata can be structured therein according to embodiments of thisdisclosure. However, it should be appreciated that data can bestructured in many different ways across multiple data storesimplemented in various computing devices. As one example, data relatedto users, coupon issuers, digital coupons, third party retailers, andother data can be extracted by the offer clearinghouse application 121by performing queries against data stored in the data store in whollydifferent table structures. Accordingly, it should be appreciated thatthe depicted data store 124 and the table structure shown therein is butone example given for ease of depiction and explanation of variousembodiments of this disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a process flow 200 illustrating a method of providing offersat a consumer-operated device, such as client device 106, according toan embodiment. In the process flow 200, both client device 106 and pointof sale system 115 communicate with offer clearinghouse application 121to redeem a digital coupon offer.

Process 200 begins with client device 106 requesting a coupon offer fromoffer clearinghouse application 121, e.g. using shopper interface 153(210). In some embodiments, optionally, the request for the coupon offerincludes compensation to offer clearinghouse application 121 in order toobtain the coupon offer (215). Compensation may be in the form ofelectronic monetary payment, loyalty reward currency (i.e., dollars,points, frequent flyer miles, cellular telephone minutes, in-kindrewards, etc.), and so on.

In response to receiving the request from client device 106 for a couponoffer, offer clearinghouse application 121 issues a coupon offer (220).Offer clearinghouse application 121 also stores a code for at least onemerchant/retailer at which the coupon offer can be redeemed (220). Insome embodiments, the code is stored in data store 124. As an example,for a coupon offer for $1 off milk, offer clearinghouse application 121may store multiple codes, each code corresponding to a respective store(such as retail stores, pharmacies, etc.) at which the coupon can beredeemed. As another example, for a coupon offer for $10 offdry-cleaning bill at a particular dry-cleaning store chain, offerclearinghouse application 121 may store multiple codes, a respectivecode corresponding to a respective store within the dry-cleaning storechain at which the coupon can be redeemed. As a third example, for acoupon offer for $10 off lunch bill at a particular restaurant, offerclearinghouse application 121 may store a single code corresponding tothe restaurant at which the coupon can be redeemed.

Offer clearinghouse application 121 may further update a bookkeepingdatabase, e.g., to decrement global offer limits associated with theissued coupon offer and may further update user database 131, e.g., todecrement user specific limits. Offer clearinghouse application 121 mayfurther update a user record associated with client device 106 and/orthe particular instance of application 145 on client device 106 in userdatabase 131, e.g., to store the unique coupon identifier as active andissued to a specific user at a specific timestamp.

In some embodiments, optionally, offer clearinghouse application 121issues a coupon offer (220) only in response to receiving compensation(225). As an example, in order to issue a coupon offer for $10 off lunchbill at a particular restaurant, offer clearinghouse application 121 mayreceive compensation of e.g., $5 from client device 106 or a user ofclient device 106.

Client device 106 receives coupon offer information from offerclearinghouse application 121, e.g., via shopper interface 153 (230).Client device 106 may store the received coupon offer information on theclient device 106, e.g., in memory associated with mobile application145. In some embodiments, the received coupon offer information that isreceived by client device 106 may include a representation (e.g., a barcode) that uniquely identifies the digital coupon offer.

Subsequent to receiving and storing coupon offer information, clientdevice 106 presents the stored coupon offer information for redemptionat point of sale system 115 (240). For e.g., user of client device 106 bopens up mobile application 145 and selects the coupon offer (e.g., froma plurality of stored coupon offers) for redemption. In someembodiments, a mobile device 106 can wirelessly communicate with thepoint of sale system 115 via a wireless networking protocol and performa handshake with the point of sale system to exchange data. In otherembodiments, the point of sale system 115 and a mobile device 106 cancommunicate over a network such as the Internet. In still otherembodiments, user of mobile device 106 physically presents the mobiledevice 106 to a point of sale system 115.

In some embodiments, optionally, upon the user of client device 106opening up mobile application 145 and selecting the coupon offer thatthe user wishes to redeem, the coupon offer remains valid for apredetermined amount of time (245). After the validity term is over, insome embodiments, the coupon offer as stored on the user's mobileapplication 145 may expire. Thus, as an example, if the user is at thepoint of sale system 115 and pulls up and presents the coupon offer, sayat 2:45 pm, the user may have, say 15 minutes to complete thetransaction and redeem the coupon offer. This expiration term can act asa deterrent for the user to try to redeem the same coupon offer morethan the number of times the user is authorized to redeem the coupon. Asan example, if the coupon offer is limited to two redemptions, after thefirst redemption, the user may receive a limited window within which topresent and redeem the coupon offer.

In some embodiments, optionally, in addition to presenting the storedcoupon offer information, user provides compensation at the point ofsale system 115 for redeeming the coupon offer (247). As an example, inorder to redeem a coupon offer for $10 off lunch bill at a restaurant,user may provide compensation to the point of sale system 115 of $5.

Point of sale system 115 receives the presented coupon offer informationfrom client device 106 and transmits at least a subset of the receivedcoupon offer information and code 116 to offer clearinghouse application121, e.g., via point of sale system interface 157 (250). The subset ofthe received coupon offer information that is transmitted by point ofsale system 115 may e.g., include a representation that uniquelyidentifies the digital coupon offer. For e.g., subset of the receivedcoupon offer information that is transmitted by point of sale system 115may include a unique bar code associated with the digital coupon offer.

In some embodiments, corresponding to block 247 of FIG. 2, point of salesystem 115 transmits at least a subset of the received coupon offerinformation and code 116 to offer clearinghouse application 121 only ifcompensation is received from client device 106. In some embodiments,corresponding to block 245 of FIG. 2, point of sale system 115 transmitsat least a subset of the received coupon offer information and code 116to offer clearinghouse application 121 only if the coupon offerpresented by the client device 106 has not expired and is still validand other conditions of redemption of coupon offer are met.

Offer clearinghouse application 121 receives the subset of the receivedcoupon offer information and code 116 from point of sale system 115 anddetermines if code 116 matches the merchant code associated with thedigital coupon offer (260). If there is no match, offer clearinghouseapplication 121 may transmit an error message to one or both of theclient device 106 and point of sale system 115 (267). If there is amatch with a digital coupon offer, offer clearinghouse application 121transmits an approval and/or further instructions for redeeming thecoupon offer (265). In one embodiment, the information received at theclearinghouse application 121 (at step 260) includes one or more of: anidentifier that identifies the digital coupon, identificationinformation for the products/services being purchased, and userinformation for the client device 106. The clearinghouse application 121can use the information received at step 260 to determine whether apromotion associated with the digital coupon should be provided to theuser in connection with the purchase by determining whether the productsassociated with the purchase qualify for the promotion, whether thedigital coupon remains valid due to a campaign budget and/or anexpiration date specified by a coupon specification, and/or whether thedigital coupon remains valid due to its being used in excess of a numberof uses specified by the coupon specification. Upon validating a digitalcoupon in this way, the clearinghouse application 121 can encumber thedigital coupon associated with the user account (265). For example, fora coupon offer that can be redeemed twice, offer clearinghouseapplication 121 marks the coupon offer as having been used once.

Point of sale system 115 receives the approval and/or furtherinstructions for redeeming the coupon offer, e.g., via point of salesystem interface 157, and redeems the digital coupon offer based thereon(270). In some embodiments, point of sale system 115 redeems the digitalcoupon offer only if compensation is received from client device 106(275). As an example, in order to redeem a coupon offer for $10 offlunch bill, Point of sale system 115 at the restaurant may receivecompensation of e.g., $5.

FIG. 3

FIG. 3 is a process flow 300 illustrating a method of providing offersat a consumer-operated device, such as client device 106, according toan embodiment. In the process flow 300, only client device 106communicates with offer clearinghouse application 121 to redeem adigital coupon offer. Point of sale system 115 does not communicate withoffer clearinghouse application 121.

Process 300 begins with client device 106 requesting a coupon offer fromoffer clearinghouse application 121, e.g. using shopper interface 153(310). In some embodiments, optionally, the request for the coupon offerincludes compensation provided to offer clearinghouse application 121 inorder to obtain the coupon offer (315). Compensation may be in the formof electronic monetary payment, loyalty reward currency (i.e., dollars,points, frequent flyer miles, cellular telephone minutes, in-kindrewards, etc.), and so on.

In response to receiving the request from client device 106 for a couponoffer, offer clearinghouse application 121 issues a coupon offer (320).Offer clearinghouse application 121 also stores a code for at least onemerchant/retailer at which the coupon offer can be redeemed (320). Insome embodiments, the code is stored in data store 124. As an example,for a coupon offer for $1 off milk, offer clearinghouse application 121may store multiple codes, each code corresponding to a respective store(such as retail stores, pharmacies, etc.) at which the coupon can beredeemed. As another example, for a coupon offer for $10 offdry-cleaning bill at a particular dry-cleaning store chain, offerclearinghouse application 121 may store multiple codes, a respectivecode corresponding to a respective store within the dry-cleaning storechain at which the coupon can be redeemed. As a third example, for acoupon offer for $10 off lunch bill at a particular restaurant, offerclearinghouse application 121 may store a single code corresponding tothe restaurant at which the coupon can be redeemed. The code is notrevealed to the client device 106.

Offer clearinghouse application 121 may further update a bookkeepingdatabase, e.g., to decrement global offer limits associated with theissued coupon offer and may further update user database 131, e.g., todecrement user specific limits. Offer clearinghouse application 121 mayfurther update a user record associated with client device 106 and/orthe particular instance of application 145 on client device 106 in userdatabase 131, e.g., to store the unique coupon identifier as active andissued to a specific user at a specific timestamp.

In some embodiments, optionally, offer clearinghouse application 121issues a coupon offer (320) only in response to receiving compensationfrom client device 106 or a user or account associated therewith (325).As an example, in order to issue a coupon offer for $10 off lunch billat a particular restaurant, offer clearinghouse application 121 mayreceive compensation of e.g., $5.

Client device 106 receives coupon offer information from offerclearinghouse application 121, e.g., via shopper interface 153 (330).Client device 106 may store the received coupon offer information on theclient device 106, e.g., in memory associated with mobile application145. In some embodiments, the received coupon offer information that isreceived by client device 106 may include a representation (e.g., a barcode) that uniquely identifies the digital coupon offer.

Subsequent to receiving and storing coupon offer information, clientdevice 106 receives a code 116 presented by point of sale system 115(335, 340), e.g., in response to client device 106 presenting the storedcoupon offer information for redemption at point of sale system 115. Insome embodiments, code 116 may include a QR code, and optionally, userof client device 106 uses a camera functionality or a scanningfunctionality associated with client device 106 to take a picture of orotherwise scan the QR code (345).

Client device 106, e.g., via mobile application 145, transmitsinformation identifying the client device 106 and/or the particularinstance of the mobile application 145 on client device 106 as well ascode 116 to offer clearinghouse application 121 (350). In someembodiments, optionally, in addition to transmitting code 116, clientdevice 106, e.g., via mobile application 145, also transmits at least asubset of the received coupon offer information (at 330). The subset ofthe received coupon offer information that is transmitted by clientdevice 106 may e.g., include a representation that uniquely identifiesthe digital coupon offer. For example, subset of the received couponoffer information that is transmitted by client device 106 may include aunique bar code associated with the digital coupon offer. The user mayhave stored a plurality of digital coupon offers that can be redeemed atpoint of sale system 115, and may wish to (or be eligible to) redeem oneor more particular offers of the stored plurality. In other embodiments,no information indicative of the one or more particular offers that theuser wishes to (or be eligible to) redeem is transmitted toclearinghouse application 121. In some embodiments, optionally, inaddition to transmitting code 116 (and optionally transmittinginformation indicative of the one or more particular offers that theuser wishes to (or be eligible to) redeem) user provides compensation toclearinghouse application 121.

Offer clearinghouse application 121 receives information identifying theclient device 106 and/or the particular instance of the mobileapplication 145 on client device 106 and identifies device 106 and/orparticular instance of the mobile application 145 on client device 106and/or user record associated therewith. Offer clearinghouse application121 receives code 116 from client device 106 and determines if code 116matches the merchant code associated with the digital coupon offer(360). If there is no match, offer clearinghouse application 121 maytransmit an error message to the client device 106 (367). If there is amatch with a digital coupon offer (e.g., the user record has a currentand un-used digital coupon offer stored in it for the merchantidentified by the received code), offer clearinghouse application 121transmits an approval and/or further instructions for redeeming thecoupon offer (365).

In one embodiment, the information received at the clearinghouseapplication 121 (at step 360) includes one or more of: an identifierthat identifies the digital coupon, identification information for theproducts/services being purchased, and user information for the clientdevice 106. The clearinghouse application 121 can use the informationreceived at step 360 to determine whether a promotion associated withthe digital coupon should be provided to the user in connection with thepurchase by determining whether the products associated with thepurchase qualify for the promotion, whether the digital coupon remainsvalid due to a campaign budget and/or an expiration date specified by acoupon specification, and/or whether the digital coupon remains validdue to its being used in excess of a number of uses specified by thecoupon specification. Upon validating a digital coupon in this way, theclearinghouse application 121 can encumber the digital coupon associatedwith the user account (365). For example, for a coupon offer that can beredeemed twice, offer clearinghouse application 121 marks the couponoffer as having been used once.

Client device 106 receives approval and/or further instructions forredeeming the coupon offer and redeems the digital coupon offer basedthereon at point of sale system 115 (370, 380). In one embodiment, thedigital coupon can be transmitted to mobile application 145, which candisplay a bar code or provide another identifier associated with thedigital coupon. A representation of the digital coupon can be generatedby the shopper interface 153 such that it uniquely identifies thedigital coupon and/or the user account with which the digital coupon isassociated. Point of sale system 115 can receive a bar code or otheridentifier associated with the digital coupon.

Accordingly, point of sale system 115 can redeem the digital couponoffer with assurance that the coupon offer cannot be redeemed more thanthe number of times that it is authorized for. For e.g., for a couponthat can only be used once by a particular user, the merchant at pointof sale system 115 can redeem the digital coupon offer with assurancethat the digital coupon offer has been marked by the user as having beenused at offer clearinghouse application 121. The same user would not beable to re-present the digital coupon offer at the point of sale system115 of the same or another retailer.

In some embodiments, optionally, the coupon offer remains valid for apredetermined amount of time (375). After the validity term is over, insome embodiments, the coupon offer as stored on the user's mobileapplication 145 may expire. Thus, as an example, if the user presentsthe coupon offer at point of sale system 115 at 2:45 pm, the user mayhave, say 15 minutes to complete the transaction and redeem the couponoffer. This expiration term can act as a deterrent for the user to tryto redeem the same coupon offer more than the number of times the useris authorized to redeem the coupon. As an example, if the coupon offeris limited to two redemptions, after the first redemption, the user mayreceive a limited window within which to present and redeem the couponoffer.

In some embodiments, optionally, in addition to presenting the storedcoupon offer information, user provides compensation at the point ofsale system 115 for redeeming the coupon offer (377). As an example, inorder to redeem a coupon offer for $10 off lunch bill at a restaurant,user may provide compensation to the point of sale system 115 of $5.

In some embodiments, point of sale system 115 redeems the digital couponoffer only if compensation is received from client device 106 (385). Asan example, in order to redeem a coupon offer for $10 off lunch bill,point of sale system 115 at a restaurant may receive compensation ofe.g., $5.

FIG. 4

FIG. 4 is a process flow 400 illustrating a method of providing offersat a consumer-operated device, such as client device 106, according toan embodiment. In the process flow 400, only client device 106communicates with offer clearinghouse application 121 to redeem adigital coupon offer. Point of sale system 115 does not communicate withoffer clearinghouse application 121.

Process 400 begins with client device 106 requesting a coupon offer fromoffer clearinghouse application 121, e.g. using shopper interface 153(410). In some embodiments, optionally, the request for the coupon offerincludes compensation provided to offer clearinghouse application 121 inorder to obtain the coupon offer (415). Compensation may be in the formof electronic monetary payment, loyalty reward currency (i.e., dollars,points, frequent flyer miles, cellular telephone minutes, in-kindrewards, etc.), and so on.

In response to receiving the request from client device 106 for a couponoffer, offer clearinghouse application 121 transmits an incompletecoupon offer to client device 106 (420). An incomplete coupon offer onlycontains a subset of the information of the complete coupon offer andcannot be redeemed without being completed. In some embodiments, theincomplete coupon offer may provide some details about the coupon offerterms and values, but does not describe the offer in sufficient detailto allow client 106 to display or render a coupon for the offer forredemption. In an embodiment, a unique coupon identifier that uniquelyidentifies the coupon offer is partially provided or not provided atall. In another embodiment, a complete coupon offer may be personalizedand include identification information for the user, but an incompleteoffer would be missing at least some user information. For example, acomplete coupon offer might state: “$5 off dry-cleaning for Jack Smithof San Francisco, Calif.” while an incomplete offer might state: “$5 offdry-cleaning for of San Francisco, Calif.” In another embodiment, acomplete coupon offer includes all applicable coupon terms, but anincomplete offer would be missing at least some coupon terms. Forexample, a complete coupon offer might state: “$5 off dry-cleaning forJack Smith of San Francisco, Calif.” while an incomplete offer mightstate: “off dry-cleaning for Jack Smith of San Francisco, Calif.”

Offer clearinghouse application 121 may further update a bookkeepingdatabase, e.g., to decrement global offer limits associated with theissued coupon offer and may further update user database 131, e.g., todecrement user specific limits. Offer clearinghouse application 121 mayfurther update a user record associated with client device 106 and/orthe particular instance of application 145 on client device 106 in userdatabase 131, e.g., to store the unique coupon identifier as active andissued to a specific user at a specific timestamp.

Offer clearinghouse application 121 also stores a code for at least onemerchant/retailer at which the coupon offer can be redeemed (420). As anexample, for a coupon offer for $1 off milk, offer clearinghouseapplication 121 may store multiple codes, each code corresponding to arespective store (such as retail stores, pharmacies, etc.) at which thecoupon can be redeemed. As another example, for a coupon offer for $10off dry-cleaning bill at a particular dry-cleaning store chain, offerclearinghouse application 121 may store multiple codes, a respectivecode corresponding to a respective store within the dry-cleaning storechain at which the coupon can be redeemed. As a third example, for acoupon offer for $10 off lunch bill at a particular restaurant, offerclearinghouse application 121 may store a single code corresponding tothe restaurant at which the coupon can be redeemed. The code is notrevealed to the client device 106.

In some embodiments, optionally, offer clearinghouse application 121issues an incomplete coupon offer (420) only in response to receivingcompensation from client device 106 or a user or account associatedtherewith (425). As an example, in order to issue a coupon offer for $10off lunch bill at a particular restaurant, offer clearinghouseapplication 121 may receive compensation of e.g., $5.

Client device 106 receives the incomplete coupon offer information fromoffer clearinghouse application 121, e.g., via shopper interface 153(430). Client device 106 may store the received coupon offer informationon the client device 106, e.g., in memory associated with mobileapplication 145. In some embodiments, the received coupon offerinformation that is received by client device 106 may include a partialrepresentation (e.g., a bar code) that uniquely identifies the digitalcoupon offer.

Subsequent to receiving and storing the incomplete coupon offerinformation, client device 106 receives a code 116 presented by point ofsale system 115 (435, 440), e.g., in response to client device 106presenting the stored coupon offer information for redemption at pointof sale system 115. In some embodiments, code 116 may include a QR code,and optionally, user of client device 106 uses a camera functionality ora scanning functionality associated with client device 106 to take apicture of or otherwise scan the QR code (445).

Client device 106, e.g., via mobile application 145, transmits code 116to offer clearinghouse application 121 (450). In some embodiments,client device 106, e.g., via mobile application 145, transmitsinformation identifying the client device 106 and/or the particularinstance of the mobile application 145 on client device 106 as well ascode 116 to offer clearinghouse application 121 (450). In someembodiments, optionally, in addition to transmitting code 116, clientdevice 106, e.g., via mobile application 145, also transmits at least asubset of the coupon offer information received at 330. The subset ofthe received coupon offer information that is transmitted by clientdevice 106 may e.g., include a representation that uniquely identifiesthe digital coupon offer. For example, subset of the received couponoffer information that is transmitted by client device 106 may include aunique bar code associated with the digital coupon offer. The user mayhave stored a plurality of digital coupon offers that can be redeemed atpoint of sale system 115, and may wish to (or be eligible to) redeem oneor more particular offers of the stored plurality. In other embodiments,no information indicative of the one or more particular offers that theuser wishes to (or be eligible to) redeem is transmitted toclearinghouse application 121. In some embodiments, optionally, inaddition to transmitting code 116 (and optionally transmittinginformation indicative of the one or more particular offers that theuser wishes to (or be eligible to) redeem) user provides compensation toclearinghouse application 121.

Offer clearinghouse application 121 receives information identifying theclient device 106 and/or the particular instance of the mobileapplication 145 on client device 106 and identifies device 106 and/orparticular instance of the mobile application 145 on client device 106and/or user record associated therewith. Offer clearinghouse application121 receives code 116 from client device 106 and determines if code 116matches the merchant code associated with the digital coupon offer(460). If there is no match, offer clearinghouse application 121 maytransmit an error message to the client device 106 (467). If there is amatch with a digital coupon offer (e.g., the user record has a currentand un-used digital coupon offer stored in it for the merchantidentified by the received code), offer clearinghouse application 121transmits a complete coupon offer and/or further instructions forredeeming the coupon offer (465). The complete coupon offer includes allthe information necessary for redemption of the coupon offer.

In one embodiment, the information received at the clearinghouseapplication 121 (at step 460) includes one or more of: an identifierthat identifies the digital coupon, identification information for theproducts/services being purchased, and user information for the clientdevice 106. The clearinghouse application 121 can use the informationreceived at step 460 to determine whether a promotion associated withthe digital coupon should be provided to the user in connection with thepurchase by determining whether the products associated with thepurchase qualify for the promotion, whether the digital coupon remainsvalid due to a campaign budget and/or an expiration date specified by acoupon specification, and/or whether the digital coupon remains validdue to its being used in excess of a number of uses specified by thecoupon specification. Upon validating a digital coupon in this way, theclearinghouse application 121 can encumber the digital coupon associatedwith the user account (465). For example, for a coupon offer that can beredeemed twice, offer clearinghouse application 121 marks the couponoffer as having been used once.

Client device 106 receives the complete coupon offer and/or furtherinstructions for redeeming the coupon offer and redeems the digitalcoupon offer based thereon at point of sale system 115 (470, 480). Themerchant at point of sale system 115 can redeem the digital coupon offerwith assurance that the coupon offer cannot be redeemed more than thenumber of times that it is authorized for. For e.g., for a coupon thatcan only be used once by a particular user, the merchant at point ofsale system 115 can redeem the digital coupon offer with assurance thatthe digital coupon offer has not been redeemed before. If the offer hadbeen marked as used or expired, the offer clearinghouse application 121would not have transmitted the complete offer details to client device106. The same user would not be able to re-present the digital couponoffer at the point of sale system 115 of the same or another retailer.

In some embodiments, optionally, the complete coupon offer remains validfor a predetermined amount of time (475). After the validity term isover, in some embodiments, the coupon offer as stored on the user'smobile application 145 may expire. Thus, as an example, if the userpresents the coupon offer at point of sale system 115 at 2:45 pm, theuser may have, say 15 minutes to complete the transaction and redeem thecoupon offer. This expiration term can act as a deterrent for the userto try to redeem the same coupon offer more than the number of times theuser is authorized to redeem the coupon.

In some embodiments, optionally, in addition to presenting the storedcoupon offer information, user provides compensation at the point ofsale system 115 for redeeming the coupon offer (477). As an example, inorder to redeem a coupon offer for $10 off lunch bill at a restaurant,user may provide compensation to the point of sale system 115 of $5. Insome embodiments, point of sale system 115 redeems the digital couponoffer only if compensation is received from client device 106 (485). Asan example, in order to redeem a coupon offer for $10 off lunch bill,point of sale system 115 at a restaurant may receive compensation ofe.g., $5.

FIG. 5

FIG. 5 is a process flow 500 illustrating a method of account creation,coupon issuance and redemption according to an embodiment. In process500, dual-key cryptography is applied to tokens exchanged between couponclearinghouse application and client device 106 for high security, suchas may be necessary when issuing high-value coupons (e.g., $10 off $20purchase).

Process 500 begins with a user associated with client device 106requesting to establish a user account with e.g., shopper interface 153of offer clearinghouse application 121. User may provide a username/login and/or password or other types of authentication information,such as multi-factor authentication, login/password combinationsassociated with an email account, a social networking site account, andso on (510).

In response to user requesting a user account, offer clearinghouseapplication 121 creates a user record that can be stored in userdatabase 131 (520). User database 131 is discussed further withreference to FIG. 7. Clearinghouse application 121 stores in the userrecord user identifying information, such as user provided user name,login, password, authentication information, etc. In addition,clearinghouse application 121 stores in the user record a public-privatekey pair that is unique to the user record such that the key pair islinked to the end user entity. The key pair is used as an additionallevel of trust to both protect and verify coupons issued specifically toa particular registered user, as discussed further. Unlike intraditional key pair cryptography, the public key is not shared withclient device 106. Rather, both keys are stored in user database 531.The Clearinghouse application 121 may optionally provide confirmation toclient device 106 that a user account was successfully created.

After registration or at any subsequent successful logins, client device106 may request a digital coupon offer from offer clearinghouseapplication 121, e.g. using shopper interface 153 (530). In someembodiments, optionally, the request for the coupon offer includescompensation provided to offer clearinghouse application 121 in order toobtain the coupon offer (535). Compensation may be in the form ofelectronic monetary payment, loyalty reward currency (i.e., dollars,points, frequent flyer miles, cellular telephone minutes, in-kindrewards, etc.), and so on.

In response to receiving the request from client device 106 for adigital coupon offer, offer clearinghouse application 121 releases aunique coupon identifier for the requested coupon 106 (540). In someembodiments, offer clearinghouse application 121 releases the uniquecoupon identifier only if certain eligibility criteria are met. Forexample, offer clearinghouse application 121 may check the user recordto ascertain that the user has not surpassed coupon redemption limits.As another example, offer clearinghouse application 121 may check theuser record to ascertain that a geographic region (e.g., zip code)associated with the user renders the user eligible to redeem therequested coupon offer. As another example, offer clearinghouseapplication 121 may release the unique coupon identifier only inresponse to receiving compensation from client device 106 or a user oraccount associated therewith. As an example, in order to release acoupon offer for $10 off lunch bill at a particular restaurant, offerclearinghouse application 121 may receive compensation of e.g., $5.

Offer clearinghouse application 121 appends an initial coupon lifecyclestate (e.g., “issued”) to the unique coupon identifier and encrypts thesequence (unique coupon identifier appended with the state information)with the public key associated with the user record for client device106 (545). Offer clearinghouse application 121 transmits the encryptedtoken to client device 106. Offer clearinghouse application 121 mayfurther update a bookkeeping database, e.g., to decrement global offerlimits associated with the issued coupon offer and may further updateuser database 131, e.g., to decrement user specific limits. Offerclearinghouse application 121 may further update a user recordassociated with client device 106 and/or the particular instance ofapplication 145 on client device 106 in user database 131, e.g., tostore the unique coupon identifier as active and issued to a specificuser at a specific timestamp.

Client device 106 receives the token from offer clearinghouseapplication 121, e.g., via shopper interface 153 (560). Client device106 may store the received token on the client device 106, e.g., inmemory associated with mobile application 145.

Steps 570-590 describe the steps required to redeem the digital couponoffer (e.g., redeem at a point of sale system 115, add to a shoppinglist, add to a digital wallet, etc.) for which the token was received at560. The redemption begins with a registered and authenticated clientdevice 106 transmitting token received at 560 to offer clearinghouseapplication 121.

Offer clearinghouse application 121 verifies the authenticity of thereceived token and checks to see if the received token is consistentwith the one stored in the user database (580). In order to check if thereceived token is authentic, offer clearinghouse application 121 usesthe private key to decrypt the token. Upon decryption, offerclearinghouse application 121 checks to ensure that the state of thetoken is consistent with the one stored in the database. At this stage,the token state should be “issued.”

Offer clearinghouse application 121 may further verify that businessrules are followed. For instance, offer clearinghouse application 121may check to see that the token is still valid, if the associated offerhas ended, if the associated offer is within a blackout period, if aredemption limit has been reached, and so on.

Upon verification, offer clearinghouse application 121 accesses thestored unencrypted unique coupon identifier and appends an updatedcoupon lifecycle state (e.g., indicating request for redemption) to theunique coupon identifier and encrypts the sequence (unique couponidentifier appended with the state information) with the public keyassociated with the user record for client device 106 (590). Offerclearinghouse application 121 transmits the encrypted token to clientdevice 106. Offer clearinghouse application 121 may further update abookkeeping database, e.g., to decrement global offer and user specificlimits, as well as to update the stored unique coupon identifier withthe updated coupon lifecycle state (e.g., indicating request forredemption) with an optional timestamp.

Client device 106 receives the encrypted token and the public key forredeeming the coupon offer and redeems the digital coupon offer, e.g.,at point of sale system 115 (570).

FIG. 6

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating clearinghouse system 103,according to some embodiments. System 103 typically includes one or moresingle- or multi-core processing units (“CPU” or “CPUs”) 610 as well asone or more network or other communications interfaces 612,respectively. System 103 includes memory 620 and one or morecommunication buses 615, respectively, for interconnecting thesecomponents. The communication buses 615 may include circuitry (sometimescalled a chipset) that interconnects and controls communications betweensystem components (not depicted herein).

Memory 620 may include high-speed random access memory, such as DRAM,SRAM, DDR RAM or other random access solid state memory devices, and mayinclude non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storagedevices, optical disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or othernon-volatile solid state storage devices. Memory 620 may optionallyinclude one or more storage devices remotely located from the CPU(s)610. Memory 620, or alternately the non-volatile memory device(s) withinmemory 620, comprise a computer readable storage medium.

In some embodiments, memory 620 stores the following programs, modulesand data structures, or a subset thereof: an operating system 621 thatincludes procedures for handling various basic system services and forperforming hardware dependent tasks; a communication module 622 that isused for connecting system 103, respectively, to other devices via theirone or more respective communication interfaces 612 (wired or wireless)and one or more communication networks, such as the Internet, other widearea networks, local area networks, metropolitan area networks, and soon; offer clearinghouse application 121 and so on.

Each of the above identified elements may be stored in one or more ofthe previously mentioned memory devices, and correspond to a set ofinstructions for performing functions described herein. The set ofinstructions can be executed by one or more processors (e.g., the one ormore CPUs 610). The above identified modules or programs (i.e., sets ofinstructions) need not be implemented as separate software programs,procedures or modules, and thus various subsets of these modules may becombined or otherwise rearranged in various embodiments. In someembodiments, memory 620 may store a subset of the modules and datastructures identified above. Furthermore, memory 620 may storeadditional modules and data structures not described above.

FIG. 7 is an exemplary user record 700 in user information database 131(FIG. 1) in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. In someembodiments, user record 700 contains a subset or a superset of theelements depicted in FIG. 7. A respective user account record 700 mayinclude such information as: (i) one or more user account identifiers702 which associates certain information in user information database131 to a particular user or user identifier (e.g., user's login username and password associated with a social networking site, user's emaillogin user name and password, user's account user name and passwordassociated with an online merchant, etc.) and/or to a particularinstance of a client application 145 and/or client device 106, (ii)payment information 704 of the user, such as credit card information,bank information, or other financial information which may be used tofacilitate online transactions by user, (iii) user loyalty accountinformation 706, such as user's loyalty card number and accountinformation associated with one or more retailers (iv) user biographicaland geographical information 708, such as may be used to provide theuser with targeted coupon offers and/or to determine user eligibilityfor clipping and/or redeeming coupon offers, (v) a public-private keypair 710 (as discussed with reference to FIG. 5), and (vi) event-baseddata 712 (e.g., data derived from monitoring a user's queries, clickresults, coupon clicks, digital coupons clipped, coupons redeemed,etc.), and so on. In an embodiment, the digital coupons with which theaccount identifier 702 is associated are unique instances ofcorresponding offers, wherein each unique instance has a unique couponidentifier. Accordingly, event-based data 712 may store unique couponinformation 714 a-714 b for digital coupons associated with the userrecord 700. Coupon information 714 may include coupon identifier (e.g, aunique number that uniquely identifies the coupon), the coupon state(e.g, active, redeemed, expired, etc.), coupon terms, etc.

Account identifier 702 is a series of characters and/or symbols thatuniquely identifies a consumer or a consumer account associated with theconsumer. In an embodiment, account identifier 702 is a number for acard account, such as a credit card account or consumer loyalty cardaccount. In an embodiment, account identifier 702 is a unique deviceidentifier belonging to a portable computing device. Examples include amobile phone, laptop or netbook computer, tablet computer, personaldigital assistant, flash drive, music player, or camera. For example,the device identifier may be a MAC address, Bluetooth address, serialnumber, randomly assigned number, and so forth. In an embodiment,identifier 702 does not necessarily correspond to device hardware, butmay rather be provided by a software application executing on thedevice. In an embodiment, account identifier 702 may be associated withbiometric data that uniquely identifies consumer, such as a fingerprintor a retinal scan.

The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has beendescribed with reference to specific embodiments. However, theillustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modificationsand variations are possible in view of the above teachings. Theembodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the invention and its practical applications, to therebyenable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention andvarious embodiments with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising:receiving, by a coupon clearinghouse server, a first merchant code andinformation associated with a digital coupon offer; in response toreceiving the first merchant code and information associated with thedigital coupon offer, determining, by the coupon clearinghouse server,that the first merchant code matches a second merchant code, where thesecond merchant code was previously stored by the coupon clearinghouseserver and is associated with the digital coupon offer; in response todetermining a match between the first merchant code and the secondmerchant code, the coupon clearinghouse server transmitting approvalinstructions for redeeming the digital coupon offer.
 2. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising, before allsteps set forth in claim 1, receiving at the coupon clearinghouse servera request for the digital coupon offer, and in response, issuing thedigital coupon offer and creating and storing the second merchant codeat the coupon clearinghouse server.
 3. The computer-implemented methodof claim 1, the coupon offer being valid for a predetermined amount oftime.
 4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprisingthe coupon clearinghouse server encumbering the digital coupon offer. 5.One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing one or moresequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processorsof a coupon clearinghouse server, cause the one or more processors toperform functions including: receiving, by a coupon clearinghouseserver, a first merchant code and information associated with a digitalcoupon offer; in response to receiving the first merchant code andinformation associated with the digital coupon offer, determining, bythe coupon clearinghouse server, that the first merchant code matches asecond merchant code, where the second merchant code was previouslystored by the coupon clearinghouse server and is associated with thedigital coupon offer; in response to determining a match between thefirst merchant code and the second merchant code, the couponclearinghouse server transmitting approval instructions for redeemingthe digital coupon offer.
 6. The computer-readable media of claim 5,further comprising instructions which when executed by the one or moreprocessors cause the one or more processors to perform, before allfunctions of the sequences of instructions of claim 5, receiving at thecoupon clearinghouse server a request for the digital coupon offer, andin response, issuing the digital coupon offer and creating and storingthe second merchant code at the coupon clearinghouse server.
 7. Thecomputer-readable media of claim 5, the coupon offer being valid for apredetermined amount of time.
 8. The computer-readable media of claim 5,further comprising instructions which when executed by the one or moreprocessors cause the one or more processors to perform, encumbering thedigital coupon offer.
 9. A computer system comprising a couponclearinghouse server programmed to execute a coupon clearinghouseapplication, the coupon clearinghouse application comprising one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media storing one or more sequences ofinstructions which, when executed by one or more processors of thecoupon clearinghouse server, cause the one or more processors to performfunctions including: receiving, by a coupon clearinghouse server, afirst merchant code and information associated with a digital couponoffer; in response to receiving the first merchant code and informationassociated with the digital coupon offer, determining, by the couponclearinghouse server, that the first merchant code matches a secondmerchant code, where the second merchant code was previously stored bythe coupon clearinghouse server and is associated with the digitalcoupon offer; in response to determining a match between the firstmerchant code and the second merchant code, the coupon clearinghouseserver transmitting approval instructions for redeeming the digitalcoupon offer.
 10. The computer system of claim 9, further comprisinginstructions which when executed by the one or more processors cause theone or more processors to perform, before all functions of the sequencesof instructions of claim 5, receiving at the coupon clearinghouse servera request for the digital coupon offer, and in response, issuing thedigital coupon offer and creating and storing the second merchant codeat the coupon clearinghouse server.
 11. The computer system of claim 9,the coupon offer being valid for a predetermined amount of time.
 12. Thecomputer system of claim 9, further comprising instructions which whenexecuted by the one or more processors cause the one or more processorsto perform, encumbering the digital coupon offer.